Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim O
Because they wanted to be there, or because they could be is the short answer. Manchuria is a different story. They likely went there to protect their supply of raw materials, thinking the Soviets might interrupt those supplies.
Following that, I think there were several factors. They had built a potent force and believed that they could build an empire that they could keep. The relationship between the militarist and Hirohito was a bit of a dog and pony show. They controlled the government because they had a great deal of influence over him, and they in turn "fought for him". With Britain busy fighting in Europe and the US "neutral" they felt that they could consolidate their east Asian holdings. They figured that the US would "blink" and let them keep it, or they would fight for the oil they needed and the US would capitulate from the rigors of a "two ocean war" and let them keep most of what they had conquered. They did not count on the shift in American public opinion or our appetite for war once "provoked" (that provocation is another story of course  ). |
Why would they need an empire, exactly? They had the only really stable government in the region, the largest textile industry in the region, and were the only military power in Asia that had once defeated any Europeans. What need did they have for more turf?
The military was coequal with the government in Japan under the Meiji Constitution, and no one could make a move without at least his consent or aquiesecence. THe Showa was anything but a puppet.
The "Britain's distraction" theory only works after September 1939. There was two years of conflict in China before that.
The IJ Navy knew it wasn't ready for a war with the US in 1941, and the IArmy was unclear as to why the attack on the US was undertaken. The expansion of the war beyond continental Asia was a calculated gamble that Japan's military knew they eventually had to lose.
So, why was it undertaken in the first place? I submit that the samurai saw their way of life as dying out, and preferred glorious death to mere obsolescence.